Optimize Your Web Page for Organic Local Search Success

As we have stated many times in this site creating a local search profile is important to being found in a local search. However, don’t forget that you can also (that’s in addition too) rank well in organic search for your website as well. This is a double bonus! We should note that this will only typically happen when you are in a smaller city or rural location and you are in a less competitive market niche. Don’t let that stop you though, always optimize every web page you create!

When consumers perform a highly targeted local search they are usually ready to take action and either visit a particular establishment or make a purchase. Greater than 60% of potential customers use a search engine to find a business in their local neighborhood.

In order to make your business shine in local search there are a few things you need to be aware of to optimize your listing for organic search. Begin with keyword research. Who are your customers and how do they search for you? Think like the consumer and find the best keywords that will most likely lead clients and customers to your door.

If you have a website, look to see what other websites are linking to your site. Take a look at your page rank and see how you use your keywords on each page of your site. Add your physical address that matches your local search listing address on your Home and Contact Us pages of your website. Remember, the most important thing in local search is “location, location, location…”

Make your site “web crawler friendly.” Search engines can’t read flash or JavaScript links and menus, can’t determine the meaning of your graphics, and certainly can’t fill out a form. You can still have those bells and whistles on your site; however you need to make certain that search engines can still crawl your site and make sense of its navigation. Use HTML links in your navigation on every page as well as on every page which links to the top-tier pages as well as to any individual product/service pages. Name your photos with keywords and geo-targeted tags.